Enzo Maresca, manager of Manchester City, is anxiously waiting on the fitness of two of his key players ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.

The Blues make the short journey to Old Trafford this weekend for a clash with Michael Carrick’s Manchester United.

Both teams are involved in Champions League action this week, although City will benefit from two extra days of recovery; they defeated Porto 2-0 last night, while United do not take on Sabah until Thursday evening.

Maresca is hopeful that Nico O’Reilly and Jeremy Doku will be back available to face the Red Devils, with both players having missed matches against Coventry City and Porto.

The Belgian has not played since the Community Shield final in August and looks likely to remain out over the next few days.

“I don’t know if he can be available for the weekend [against United], but slowly, slowly he is back,” said Maresca.

As for O’Reilly, he started City’s first two Premier League matches before picking up a back issue in the team’s warm-up on Saturday afternoon, which ruled him out of the last two games.

However, Maresca has said that the 21-year-old will ‘probably’ be back in time to have some involvement in the M16 meeting.

Carrick is also dealing with injury issues of his own, with Marcus Rashford taken off in the 70th minute against Everton after indicating that he was feeling discomfort.

Amad Diallo is still waiting for his first minutes of the season after suffering a setback in pre-season, and it is expected that he could remain out until after the international break in October.

Mason Mount was included in the matchday squad for the first time at the Hill Dickinson Stadium but remained an unused substitute, so he is likely to make his first appearance of the campaign this week.